Bundeskunsthalle Museum hosts ‘Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory’ in ‘NEVER AGAIN!’ exhibit – Oct 10, 2026 – May 2, 2027

We’re pleased to share that select panels from Barbara Yelin and Emmie Arbel’s graphic novel Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory, a Survivor-Centered Visual Narratives (SCVN) project, are included in NEVER AGAIN! Against Forgetting the Crimes of the Nazi Regime (NIE WIEDER! Gegen das Vergessen der NS-Verbrechen). The graphic novel comes out of SCVN’s Holocaust Research Cluster.

The exhibition runs October 10, 2026 to May 2 2027 at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Germany, and is presented in cooperation with the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation.

The exhibition catalogue also includes an interview with Barbara Yelin and SCVN’s Dr. Charlotte Schallié about the project and the work of telling survivors’ stories through graphic narrative.

NEVER AGAIN! is curated by Henriette Pleiger, and asks how we preserve evidence at the crime sites, how we safeguard authentic testimony in the digital age, and how we keep remembrance alive. It explores these questions through artistic work, historical testimony and objects. NEVER AGAIN! is organized around five themes: knowledge, crime sites, memorials, remembrance and the future of memory culture. Throughout, it addresses current efforts to suppress memory of these crimes.

Poster for NEVER AGAIN! Against Forgetting the Crimes of the Nazi Regime. Photo source: https://www.bundeskunsthalle.de/en/

Emmie Arbel’s story, told through images

Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory grew out of years of collaboration between Barbara and Holocaust survivor Emmie Arbel. It shows how a life shaped by persecution is carried and remembered, and how visual storytelling can hold testimony in ways that are intimate and lasting. Seeing excerpts from the book in this setting underscores the central question of the exhibition: how survivors’ voices continue to reach us as their generation passes.

Cover of the English version of Barbara Yelin’s Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory (2024) and original watercolours from the graphic novel featured in the exhibit. Photo credit: David Ertl, 2026 © Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany gGmbH.

A major exhibition on memory culture

The exhibition examines various methods of remembrance, primarily through art and digital media, as well as historical testimonies and objects. Barbara’s panels appear alongside work by from a distinguished group of artists, including Christian Boltanski, Käthe Kollwitz, Gerhard Richter, Luc Tuymans and Andreas Maus. Contributors include Aleida Assmann, Meron Mendel, Susanne Siegert, Eva Umlauf and Jens-Christian Wagner.

NEVER AGAIN! Exhibition, Bundeskunsthalle. Photo credit: David Ertl, 2026 © Kunstund Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland gGmbH (top left); Christian Boltanski, Menschlich, 1994 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026, photo: Marek Kruszewski (top middle); David Ertl, 2026 © Kunstund Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland gGmbH (bottom left); David Ertl, 2026 © Kunstund Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland gGmbH (bottom right).

Visit the exhibition

• Where: Bundeskunsthalle, Helmut-Kohl-Allee 4, 53113 Bonn, Germany
• When: 10 October 2026 to 2 May 2027
• Admission: €14 / €7 concessions; free for visitors 18 and under
• More information: bundeskunsthalle.de/en/nie-wieder

Learn more about SCVN’s Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory here.

This graphic novel was developed as part of the Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives Project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).